1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of controlling parked vehicles, primarily cars. More specifically, the invention relates to a parking system in which a mobile telephone can be used to commence and terminate parking of a vehicle
2. Description of the Related Art
In cities and towns there will be one or more vehicle parking companies who have parking meters, or so-called pay meters, distributed throughout the city or town in a number of different places. Streets and large parking areas are the most common places in this regard.
In recent times, it has become more and more usual to pay parking fees with different types of bank card or cash card, as a supplement to coin payment. When a cash card is used, the person parking a vehicle will draw the card through a card reader on the parking meter.
The parking meter then issues a parking ticket, which is placed inwardly of the windscreen where it can be seen. When collecting the vehicle, the person concerned must return to the pay meter and again draw the cash card through the meter card reader. The pay meter then calculates the parking fee and stores the fee together with the number of the card to be charged.
A system in which parking of a vehicle at such parking facilities can be initiated and also terminated with the aid of a mobile telephone is known to the art.
Swedish Patent Specification 9800888-1 teaches a simple system for parking vehicles by means of a mobile telephone. According to that patent, data on a cash card or credit card owned by the user and accepted as payment means by the parking system, and at least a user-specific reference, are stored in and tied to a database belonging to the parking company concerned.
A user-specific reference is the number of the telephone that is used when parking the vehicle concerned. The telephone number is detected by the computer of the parking system as the telephone is connected to a telephone number belonging to the parking system.
A vehicle-specific reference is the registration number of the vehicle This registration number is coupled with the telephone number in the computer of the parking system and possibly also with the number of the cash card.
Whether or not commencement of a vehicle parking period has been reported to the parking can be ascertained by a parking attendant reading the registration number of the vehicle.
According to said patent, the parking attendants are equipped with a portable communications unit which is in wireless connection with a computer of the parking company in which data relating to those vehicles where parking has been commenced but not yet terminated is stored. This communications unit may be constructed for example, in accordance with the control unit described in Swedish Patent Specification 9700054-1. The parking attendant enters the parking zone concerned into the control unit and the control unit fetches from the computer a so-called parked vehicle list relating to the parking zone concerned, i.e., a list of the registration numbers of those vehicles with which the commencement of a parking period has been reported. The control unit then compares the registration numbers read-off with the list of parked vehicles and indicates when a commenced parking period has not been reported.
The system described in Swedish Patent Specification 9700054-1 is encumbered with a number of drawbacks. For instance it is desirable to enable the number of entries required by the attendants through the unit keypad to be reduced. It is also desirable to simplify handling of the control unit, which necessitates both reading and entering data. Handling of the unit is particularly difficult in winter when the attendants often need to wear so-called three-finger gloves.
The present invention solves these problems.